As Seen in Vanity Fair's August 2006 Issue!
As Seen in US News & World Report's September 11 Fifth Anniversary Issue!
As Seen in Time Magazine's September 11, 2006 Issue!
As Seen in Phoenix New Times' August 9, 2007 Issue!

Friday, September 30, 2011

The Eleventh Day

It is a measure of the respect that I have for this book that I have revised my opinion on several issues based on the evidence provided by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan.

The Pakistani ISI's connections to 9-11 definitely deserve more attention by the mainstream media. Don't get me wrong, I still have grave doubts about the claim of $100,000 supposedly wired to Mohamed Atta the day before the attacks, and The Eleventh Day completely ignores this nonsense. The authors make strong points about Pakistan's support for Al Qaeda and the Taliban without endorsing the more fanciful accounts.

The section dealing with Saudi support for the terrorists also seems worthy of deeper review, and I am willing to join in the call for the release of the complete 28-page section of the 9-11 Commission Report dealing with this subject. The book makes a strong case against Omar al-Bayoumi, the Saudi responsible for finding accommodations for the first two hijackers to arrive in the United States, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi.

The book also contained some surprises; I had not been aware that Osama Bin Laden had in fact visited the United States. The authors reveal that this was disclosed in a 2009 book by his wife. So whether you have a deep knowledge of the events of 9-11 or just a modest understanding of the events of that day, the book will certainly enlighten you on certain aspects.

The authors make little secret of their disdain for the 9-11 Truthers, and this section of the book will probably provide the most delight to our rational readers. Summers and Swan take a bat to such kooks as David Ray Griffin, Laura Knight Jadczyk and A.K. Dewdney. There is a reasonably accurate summary of the history of the movement, although oddly the authors ignore Eric Hufschmid's importance as the first American author and filmmaker of 9-11 Truth.

I do have a few reservations about the book. The authors repeat the canard that workers on the pile relied on the EPA's advisory that the air was safe to breathe in Lower Manhattan. I looked into this extensively and found numerous citations indicating that respirators were generally required on the pile, although the workers commonly refused them because of the discomfort and the inability to smoke cigarettes while wearing them. Here's an NPR interview from earlier this month with a journalist for the Atlantic Monthly, who talks about the respirators:

Cleanup workers themselves were rebellious. Almost no one wore respirators, Langewiesche says, except in the most extreme conditions.
"They
didn't put them on, and I didn't either," he says. "And the reason was
— it was sort of necessary in a weird way. It wasn't self-sacrificial.
But there had to be this kind of reckless courage, even if it was
nonsensical, that was part of the beauty."

If anybody can be criticized about the workers not wearing respirators, it's OSHA.

According to an e-mail message to the regional director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration,
Mr. McKinney said at an Oct. 7, 2001, meeting that the city wanted the
respirator rules enforced because “contractors ‘fear’ OSHA’s ability to
issue penalties and that would cause compliance.”

I am also concerned that the Able Danger claims and Richard Clarke's account are presented without any recognition of the problems associated with them. Able Danger was investigated by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which found that the most sensational claim, that Mohamed Atta was identified as a terrorist by the system well before 9-11 and appeared on a chart as part of the "Brooklyn Cell" was unfounded.

As for Clarke, his self-serving account of his actions before and during the events of 9-11 is riddled with inconsistencies. To give just two examples, Clarke claimed that his teleconference on 9-11 included both Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Myers, but we know that in fact neither of those two men participated.
In addition, I noted something about Clarke's appearance on 60 Minutes back in 2004. When Lesley Stahl asked him about his party affiliation, Clarke gave a very curious answer:

"Last time I had to declare my party loyalty, it was to vote in the Virginia primary for president of the United States in the year 2000. And I asked for a Republican ballot."

I thought at the time that it was an odd circumlocution, so I did a little digging and discovered that Clarke could not have asked for a Democratic ballot in 2000, because the Democrats did not have a primary in Virginia in 2000:

While it's not a lie, it strikes me as an intentionally deceptive statement.
Still, overall The Eleventh Day strikes me as belonging on the top shelf of the 9-11 books, right up there with The Looming Tower and Perfect Soldiers.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

The New Debunker on the Block

In the latest issue of the al Qaeda English-language magazine "Inspire",
an author appears to take offense to the "ridiculous" theory repeatedly
spread by Ahmadinejad that the 9/11 terror attacks were actually
carried out by the U.S. government in order to provide a pretext to
invade the Middle East.

"The Iranian government has professed on the tongue of its president
Ahmadinejad that it does not believe that al Qaeda was behind 9/11 but
rather, the U.S. government," an article reads. "So we may ask the
question: why would Iran ascribe to such a ridiculous belief that stands
in the face of all logic and evidence?"

Of course, this is just an example of life imitating art. Remember this hysterical bit by the Onion?

Rockets at the WTC

No, not Judy Wood and not the Web Fairy. This is David Chandler:

The object (apparently a perimeter wall unit) raced ahead of its
neighboring debris, but its acceleration was about 1/3 of gravity. This
is an indication that it was kicked downward initially by an explosion,
after which the air resistance partially canceled the effect of gravity
as it approached terminal velocity. As it fell, however, there was an
outburst of white smoke, at which point the projectile changed
directions, slightly, and accelerated downward for about a half second
at 1.5 times gravity. It then fell back to continued acceleration a
little under 1 g.

Video:

Make no mistake about it; Chander is proposing that one of the perimeter wall units actually gained acceleration (not speed) after falling from the building. Of course, supermagiconanothermite cannot do this, so they're back to hypothesizing that there were rockets on the perimeter wall units.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Rick Rescorla Honored

"Since the 9/11 attacks, we have seen exceptional models of
resilience all around us," said Secretary Napolitano. "By honoring
Richard Rescorla with the Distinguished Public Service medal, we
remember his heroism and commitment to the preparedness of the thousands
of employees under his watch."
On September 11, 2011, Richard
Rescorla was Second Vice President for Security at Morgan Stanley
headquarters located in World Trade Center Tower 2. Richard led a
massive evacuation of Morgan Stanley's 2,700-person workforce located in
the South Tower, contributing to the survival of many of his coworkers.

Rescorla reportedly sang this song over the bullhorn to exhort his colleagues out of the building:

"Men of Cornwall, stop your dreaming,
Can't you see their spearpoints gleaming..."

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Jon Gold Took the Short Bus

"Truthers like to pretend there is no evidence for the 9/11 hijackers" - Pat Curley

Jon follows it up with a quote from himself which certainly indicates strongly that he himself believes in the hijackers, which is certainly to his credit. But you don't have to look far to find that a large segment of the 9-11 Troof community denies the existence of the hijackers. Just do a Google search for "alleged hijackers". On the first page alone, you'll get a collection of Truther sites like Prison Planet, 9-11 Review, 9-11 Blogger, and even Gold's much-beloved 9-11 Timeline.

Now I'm sure Jon would respond with his old reliable BS about "the 9-11 Truth Movement I belong to" being more sensible than that. It's like he worships the one true god, and all the others have false gods before them. But that gets us into the "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" territory, and there's really a much easier way to prove what a fathead Jon is: By looking at the post in question, where we can see the following:

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Future Member of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that as an engineer he's sure the twin towers were not brought down by jetliners.

Ahmadinejad, in an interview with The Associated Press, says it would have been impossible for two jetliners to bring down the towers simply by hitting them. he says some kind of planned explosion must have taken place.

9/11 Commission Archives

The National Archives has posted a blog entry on the 9/11 Commission records which they are sorting. Truthers like to pretend there is no evidence for the 9/11 hijackers, but this is based entirely on the fact that they immediately dismiss any evidence which is produced by the government, and since they don't do any of their own investigation, well, who else would have collected evidence?

I remember paging through photocopies of the boarding passes from Flight 93. I turned a page and saw hijacker Ziad Jarrah’s name. It felt like getting punched in the stomach. I imagined the line of travelers waiting to walk down the jetway, having no idea that four of their fellow passengers were going to kill them in a few minutes. We all know that annoying guy in the line talking too loudly or grumbling about the score of last night’s game as it flashes on the terminal television. It was probably just as mundane that morning for the travelers in that waiting area. As I sat in my work space, everything in me wanted to shout to those people to walk away and not board the plane. “Go home to your loved ones and hug them or you’ll never be able to ever again,” my mind screamed.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Shrink Rap

Psychologists for 9-11 Troof want us to know that we're suffering from some form of dementia for not believing in the "scientific evidence" that 9-11 was an inside job:

Note that the second person is Fran Shure. Remember her? Here's her expert diagnosis:
Yep, Fran the Fruitcake wanted us all to know that Sean Fitzgerald was a very intelligent and sane person. Two weeks later, Sean murdered his own father because he was convinced the old man was the devil.

Update: This video is actually the grand finale of Box Boy Richard Gage's latest "straight to coaster" DVD, 9-11 Explosive Evidence, the Experts Speak Out. And Fran might not be the most flaky of the experts in this segment. For example check out Danielle Duperret's webpage on her travails with the US court system.

Monday, September 19, 2011

FBI Releases New Pentagon Photos

The FBI released more photographs from their 9/11 investigation at the Pentagon, including those plane parts the Truthers insist don't exist. This won't stop the demented from denying reality though. Paging David Ray Griffin.

Looking for Updates....

How did that super fund-raising drive for Remember Building What turn out? The Troofers were going to raise ONE MILLION DOLLARS so that they could saturate New York City with subway and television ads. Ref at JREF notes the curious lack of updates:

- No updates on this on the main rememberbuilding7 campaign website, just the old "donate now" buttons
- No updates on Facebook, they have moved on to other topics
- No updates on their twitter
- No updates on ae911truth.org

How much money did Richard Gage bank in 2010? Guidestar still doesn't have the 990 form for last year, even though the 2009 form was filed by June of 2010.

I am facing 3 baseless charges. 2x Felony Resisting Arrest, and 1x
Felony Terrorist Threat. The prosecution only has perjured statements by
an officer who is always under oath. The badge they wear means they are
under oath. The judges have violated my due process rights at just
about every hearing.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

An Answer for Jon

Pat Curley is a lying, deceptive piece of sh*t
that spends all of his time concerned about something he has repeatedly
said there is nothing to.

Cosmos, who's a family member, asks:

How many years has he been doing this?

Gold:

I guess for 5 years or so. Day in, and day out.
About something he and his kind repeatedly say there is "nothing" to.
No cover-up of any kind, etc... and so on.

Five years or so is right, give or take four months. As for all of my time, day in and day out, that's a ridiculous exaggeration. In fact, I've put very little time into SLC this year. The last couple weeks, sure, but the tenth anniversary has meant an explosion in coverage. In fact, over all, I've felt a little guilty for the infrequent updates this year, because there's so little new under the sun.

As for why I do it, it's pretty simple. I agree with the Truthers on two things: the date of the attacks and the fact that they were extremely significant events in the United States' history. Hell, three things: That it is very important for us to understand what happened that day. And therein lies the key; the Troofers are the new hijackers. They want to obscure the real facts of 9-11 for their own purposes.

Jon Gold likes to hide behind the skirts of his beloved Jersey Girls and moan about how they deserve answers to their questions. Let me ask you this, Jon-boy. Who has lied to the Jersey Girls more, me, the US Government or David Ray Griffin?

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Stalkers for 9/11 Truth

Jon Gold responds to Pat's post earlier today. Apparently he thinks Pat "quote mined" him, but I am not quite understanding his complaint, so I will let him and Pat duke it out directly. Jon, of course, can post openly here and does quote often, while debunkers are immediately banned from any Truther site, so I am curious as to why he didn't just complain in the comments here.

I have [thought about it], and I wish I knew how to find out where a person gets their money, what business affiliations they have, etc... and so on. But... I don't. Nor, is he worth the time as a worthless human being.

Scratch a Truther, find a fascist. Yes Jon, I know you wish we lived in some Orwellian society where you can find out anything about anyone so that you can harass and punish those who disagree with you, perhaps put them up on the Kevin Barrett-like scaffolds for their crimes against the 9/11 Truth Movement, but I for one am glad that we still live in a society which respects personal privacy and civil rights. I am glad that you don't know where I work, or who I associate with, as I don't want you nutjobs harassing and threatening them.

More Mohr

Chris Mohr, whose debate defeat of Richard Gage was so embarrassing that the Architects and Engineers deep-sixed a plan to create a video of the event, is back with an Eskeptic piece.

WHAT ABOUT THE SULFIDIZED STEEL THAT MELTED AND THAT FEMA FOUND BUT WHICH NIST IGNORED IN THEIR REPORT? NIST didn’t ignore it. Jonathan Barnett at FEMA studied two pieces of sulfidized steel,
which is not enough to explain the collapse. NIST determined that
neither piece came from a supporting column in the collapse zone so it
couldn’t have contributed to the collapse.7
Sulfidized steel melts at temperatures 1000° lower than regular steel
so it could have “melted” in a regular office fire. And the
“intergranular melting” FEMA discovered is not like melting as we know
it anyway; it’s more like corrosion on an almost microscopic scale
occurring along the boundaries between the crystals or grains of a
metal. The technical description for what happened is “intergranular
melting, high temperature corrosion via sulphidation, oxidation, and
decarburisation leading to a liquid Iron Oxide Suflur mix from grain
boundary melting.” And while Jonathan Barnett would like to see more
research on this, he does not support the controlled demolition theory.

Why I Don't Plan to Defeat the Truthers for All Time

You may recall that Guitar Bill made some comment along those lines a week or two ago. We didn't want to defeat the Truthers forever because we got some sort of reflected glory and fame from their continued existence.

But really, it's not that. Look, the BBC probably spent tens of thousands of dollars on that Road Trip documentary, and how successful were they? They flipped one out of five Truthers to the rational cause. And that's actually phenomenally successful.

Jonathan Swift observed centuries ago that you cannot reason a man out of an idea that he was never reasoned into in the first place. Truthers do not construct their arguments rationally, building evidence and seeing where that evidence takes them. They start with the conclusion: Bush/Cheney did it and work backwards, seeking little facts that would appear to prop up that deduction. Remember the guy who compared the building collapses to the Jenga game? Well, Truthers are playing the Jenga game in reverse. Instead of pulling a piece out here or there, and seeing if the whole thing falls apart, they are putting pieces in place and marveling that the whole thing never falls over. Well, duh!

We can see this in the way the conclusion never changes, even though the evidence cited may. I pointed out awhile ago, that Jon Gold's second review on Amazon was a rave for Kevin Fenton's new book, which argues the LIHOP theory. His first review was for one of David Ray Griffin's MIHOP books, and there again, Gold was rapturous.

Of course, Gold has become much more skeptical about Griffin over the past few years, to his credit. But... the conclusion didn't change significantly. Yes, you can say that LIHOP is quite a shift from MIHOP, but it's really just a fallback position, and given what he said to Matt Taibbi on Facebook about elements in the government more than earning the title of suspect for the crimes of 9-11, it's not a stretch to believe that Gold is still clinging to the more extreme conspiracy theory, just being a little less honest about it.

For more evidence, look at Gold's reaction to Charlie Veitch's apostasy from the party line. Now remember, Veitch's rationale for supporting the Truthers was that he bought into the controlled demolition arguments, as he cited when given his chance on the Road Trip bus. And Gold has often lamented that the Truth Movement has evolved into the Controlled Demolition movement. So you might think that Gold's response would be something along the lines of "Well, that's what happens when you lead with the CD arguments."

Whether or not he's an "infiltrator" or not, he
denounced this cause using the officially designated issue that has been
made synonymous with this cause through other infiltration.

I'm not even sure what the heck that means. Is Richard Gage an infiltrator? Is Steven Jones?

Jim D pointed out in a post that Gold seems to defend the Truth Movement from any attacks, even those that cite the weakest crap, like Griffin's endless claims that nine of the hijackers are alive:

You are proving that you care more about your
church than the salvation of it's members. In short you truthers are
promoting the cult like fringe aspects that are such a turn off to
people myself included. I have seen lie after lie put out immediately by
members of the 9-11 truth church in regards to this book because the
authors do not worship at your 9-11 truth church. I don't either and
this is why. After 10 years one might think you would have gained a
little insight in what makes a movement successful. Your movement is
extremely unsuccessful and you yourselves are exposing why.

Gold responds:

By the way... I love Jim's dishonest portrayal of
us being apart of the "cult." Douchebag. Nah... the people here
haven't spoken out against the stupidity more than anyone else...
constantly writing pointers on how to approach people... constantly
trying to promote the most credible information... calling out lunacy
where its found... yea... we are so apart of the cult. Douchebag.

Yes, they occasionally point out the lunacy; after we rub their faces in it enough times. But where was this sensible Gold five years ago, when he wrote that review on Amazon about how one day people would be comparing David Ray Griffin to Martin Luther King and Gandhi? Answer: He's been beaten back from that crap, but not so far that he's changed any conclusions; he's just changed the evidence he cites.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Apparently We're Big in France

During the 9/11 anniversary coverage our humble blog gets a mention by the French News Agency AFP. Unfortunately they manage to screw up our URL. I will keep my mouth shut to avoid offending any French readers.

The conspiracy theorists remain a minority and face the scorn of the counter-conspiracy movement on websites like www.debunking911.com and www.screwloosechange.blogspot.com, which claims to prove wrong almost every statement made during the film.

I don't recall making that exact quote, but then again, since Dylan Avery now pretty much disclaims his own movie, our work in that respect is pretty much done.

It's this mentality that has pushed Avery away from the movement over the last four years. "Maybe he just changed his mind," Avery said, referring to the Veitch hysteria. "I mean, people change their minds." Avery has had his own issues with Jones and his audience over the years, and speculated that some of the death threats that Veitch received came from Jones' listeners. "That kind of mob mentality [is] the very thing that we were claiming to fight, the 'You're with us or with the terrorists' mentality," he said."That's one of the reasons I had to back away from the movement in general," he said. "I was afraid I was becoming one of them—someone who sees conspiracy around every corner."

One of the Truther sites incidentally, comprised a handy summary of anniversary conspiracy theory coverage, or as they call it "hit pieces".

Monday, September 12, 2011

Road Trip

I found it entertaining, but it seemed to me that the debunkings missed the point on more than one occasion. For example, the woman who felt it would be impossible for a hijacker to fly a jet into the World Trade Center. While it was cool to see one of the gals learn to fly a small plane, why didn't they instead have the Truther learn to fly a 767 flight simulator and see if she could hit a similar target?

And when the other gal brought up the security issue and Bush's 8-6-01 warning about hijackings, I had to wince a bit when the pilot claimed there hadn't been a lot of hijackings in the US and there weren't many metal detectors at the airports. Sorry, but neither statement is true; there were certainly metal detectors at the three airports (Logan, Newark and Dulles) that the flights on 9-11 departed from. And there were hijackings in the 1970s and 1980s, which is a major reason why there were metal detectors. The real issue is that the hijackings on 9-11 were vastly different than ones in the past as they turned into suicide flights, while in the past they had simply played out as hostage dramas.

Press For Truth Boys Threatened With Prosecution

Remember when leaking the name of a CIA agent was considered "treason"? Jon Gold certainly does, as he used that word as a tag on a post he put over at Flogger on the Valerie Plame incident:

It will be interesting to see if he maintains that position. The lads responsible for the Truther-lite film Press for Truth have been threatened with prosecution if they release their new radio schlocumentary.

On Thursday, the CIA threatened the journalists behind Who Is Rich Blee? with possible federal prosecution if the
investigative podcast is released in its current form.

I can't locate the cite right now, but I recall that in discussions about the "investigative podcast", John Duffy and Ray Nowosielski, the two "journalists" in question, mentioned that they would be revealing the names of two CIA agents who had previously been anonymous.

We are delaying that release while we consult with others and weigh our options.

Let's hope that they get better legal counsel than the clowns who put together the NYC-CAN petition. BTW, remember that whoever furnished the names of the CIA agents to Duffy and his partner are already in deep trouble.

Releasing the name of a covert CIA operative in
an effort to discredit her and her husband is a lot different than
releasing the names of people that should have been held accountable,
but weren't. Fail.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Ten Years Ago

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Put the Options Down Already

In a previous post Pat mentioned the Truther hearings (really a conference) going on in Toronto. I don't have an interest in watching the whole thing, but I saw that Paul Zarembka was giving a presentation on the whole put option thing and decided to watch that. It has always been a particular interest of mine, mostly since I studied finance in college and work at a finance firm, and I have done several posts on the subject already.

And I have to say that I was both surprised and annoyed, to watch Zarembka actually get into the investigation that the FBI and SEC did on this issue, both covered in the 9/11 Commission Report and the ensuing documents released by the Commission, and which we covered over 2 years ago. Now here is the surprising part, he concludes that the volume of put options were unusually high, mostly by referencing the Poteshman study, also covered by us nearly 5 years ago, but then determines that based on the FBI and SEC investigations having found that this was innocent investment activities, caused largely by a public newsletter, that there was no evidence of any wrongdoing.

Hello, then why have you idiots been claiming that there was for the last 6 years?

He does not, however, stop while he is ahead. He then goes on to argue that it would have been too suspicious for conspirators to profit off of the attacks merely by buying airline put options, that they would have bought into the much larger market in index funds. Gee, I wonder why that sounds familiar? Oh yeah, because that is exactly what I said over 5 years ago, only a month after founding this blog.

In actuality, if someone wanted to make money of the attacks, the best way would not be to buy puts in the companies involved, but to short the entire market, or buy oil futures. The Dow dropped over 16% in the weeks after 9/11, and buying puts on the much larger index market could have been done in larger quantities without drawing any attention, but then again the Loose Change boys couldn't put this much more complex theory into an ominous looking graphic in their movie that could be understood by their 20-something audience.

He then goes on to argue that some study I have never heard of points out that put options in the S & P 500 were at an unusually high level. This does not surprise me, as the economy was not doing too terribly well in the fall of 2001. Where Zarembka completely loses it though is he indignantly points out that the FBI and SEC were aware of high options trading in these markets, but did not look into them, for the entirely reasonable fact that there was simply too much too investigate. They can't be expected after all, to question everyone involved in the stock market in the fall of 2001, trying to find some anomalous reason that they were pessimistic. It is no more practical then investigating a murder by going door to door throughout an entire town demanding to know where everyone was on the night of the murder.

So anyway, because of this, despite having admitted that there was nothing to the airline put option theories that the majority of the movement has been pushing for the last decade, Zarembka indignantly demands an investigation into the rest of the put option market! Once again proving that their beliefs are not falsifiable. They do not want an investigation, they want an investigation which gives them the results that they desire.

New 9-11 Terror Threat

It was only two days ago, on Wednesday in Pakistan, according to
officials, that the CIA developed the information about a possible al
Qaeda terror plot targeting the U.S.
Three men, including at least one and maybe two American citizens, had
allegedly travelled to the U.S. in mid- August, from Pakistan through
Dubai, assigned to attack New York or Washington with a vehicle bomb on
Sept 10, 11 or 12

Reports are that the target might include one or more of the many bridges or tunnels into New York. Such an attack would certainly cost plenty of lives, and disrupt commutes into the Big Apple. The picture above is of Jude Kenan Mohammad, reputed to be one of the attackers. Mohammad is a home-grown terrorist who was born in Florida and dropped out of high school in North Carolina in 2006 to become a jihadi.

Friday, September 09, 2011

Truther: Cheney's Order Was Shootdown, Which Proves....

Standdown! Once again we see the unfalsifiable nature of Truther delusions. Yesterday's tape releases includes at least one recording where military men mention that the Vice President had given authorization to shoot down any aircraft which persists in an attack on a major population center. But, whether due to confusion or concern that Cheney did not have the power to make that order (militarily, the Vice President is not in the chain of command), the order was apparently countermanded by an air force commander.

Most striking of all is the revelation that an order by Vice President
Dick Cheney was ignored by the military, which saw his order to shoot
down aircraft as outside the chain of command. Instead of acknowledging
the order to shoot down civilian aircraft and carrying it out, NORAD
ordered fighters to confirm aircraft tail numbers first and report back
for further instructions.

So after years of hearing from David Ray Grifter and other truthers misinterpreting Norm Mineta's testimony to indicate that he overheard a standdown order, we now learn that it was, as rational people have assumed all along, a shoot-down order. So how does a shoot-down order become a standdown?

It took about 10 years, but the MSM is finally
starting to understand that Cheney giving shoot down orders is the same
thing as a stand down.

James argued in July 2010
that Bush and Rumsfeld (who together comprise the NCA), knowingly
stayed out of the loop leaving it to Cheney to give the shootdown order,
after it was too late, all three knowing it wouldn't have the force of
authority if it came from Cheney, but it would look like they tried to
do their job nonetheless.

One obvious question: If Bush and Rumsfeld "knowingly" stayed out of the loop, why was Cheney's order issued too late?

Thursday, September 08, 2011

The ATC/NEADS Tapes

Compiled by the folks at the Rutgers Law Review. Absolutely gripping material and I highly recommend the MP3/transcript version. I've heard quite a bit of the tapes before (mostly in connection with the Vanity Fair article a couple years back), but it's fascinating nonetheless. Phantom Flight 11 (the persistent belief that AA11 was not the plane that hit WTC 1) causes endless confusion.

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Troofer Comic Update

Rick Veitch apparently is taking the title of his Troofer comic book, The Big Lie, quite literally:

Ashcroft and Willie (note the pimp outfit) Brown. Man, that crap certainly doesn't come up much any more. Veitch lets us in on his own version of the conspiracy theory:

Yeah. And the second thing that sort of came to me, which I’ve never
heard this discussed anywhere, is the possibility that when they build a
giant skyscraper like that, they pre-load it with munitions to take it
down in case of emergency. And that what we saw after the strikes was
that they were worried that the damn things were gonna tip over and so
they took them straight down. And of course if it is the case that some
of these buildings are preloaded with explosives then they couldn’t tell
people. I’m just imagining this, of course. But in the absence of a
real investigation that’s kind of what happens.

Actually quite a few kooks came up with that one, including Jesse Ventura.

Update: Okay, thanks to some contacts in the industry I was able to obtain a digital copy of the comic. Comments:

1. "Pyroclastic" clouds.
2. As she tells them about the attacks, they respond with standard Troofer talking points. Box cutters, haha, the military would intercept the planes in 8 minutes, this would only work if the government was involved, etc.
3. While she is desperately trying to convince them to evacuate the building with less than 30 minutes left, she goes into a long digression on the Iraq War, then listens to another guy (who voted for Reagan) rail on about the neocons and PNAC. Tick, tick, tick.
4. In a moment of supreme irony, her husband is a structural engineer, and makes the argument that fires never brought down a steel-framed, blah blah blah. Better yet, if he were trying to bring down the towers, he'd use one of those "low-noise thermites".
5. They're convinced that she's some sort of actor playing a role rigged up by "Stephen" (Spielberg is clearly implied) and so they don't believe her. Of course any sensible woman would tell her husband some sort of secret that only she would know.
6. Ads in the back for Press for Troof and Box Boy's clowns.

The Rise of the "Truthers"

Consider: Within hours of the planes hitting the towers, the conspiracy
theories had already begun to swirl. Many used them to pin blame on
their favorite pre-existing bogeyman. Days after 9/11, for example, a
rumor spread that 4,000 Jews had been warned about the attacks and
failed to show up for their jobs at the Twin Towers. As outlined in Part
1 of this series, this story was debunked immediately and never gained
traction in the West. Career paranoiacs in America, meanwhile, were
pointing the finger squarely at the U.S. government. People like
libertarian radio host Alex Jones and alternative media reporter Michael
Ruppert came from different ends of the political spectrum, but they
both "knew" instantly that powers more diabolical than al-Qaida were
behind the attacks, specifically the all-pervasive New World Order and
the oil-hungry, fascistic Bush administration.

In 2007 a conspiracist confronted Zelikow in public with the "fact" that many of the hijackers are still alive. Zelikow responded that the 9/11 Commission had looked into the claims and found nothing to them
but could not fit every single debunked conspiracy theory into the
final version of the report. The questioner's reply was to repeat his
accusation. I had a similar experience on the same topic when
questioning Griffin, who begins his book The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortionswith
the "hijackers are still alive" theory. I sent him an email pointing
out that this theory relied on discredited media reports—the "hijackers"
they had found were just people with the same names as the hijackers.
In response, he emailed me a chapter on the topic from one of his books
and said he was too busy to discuss the issue further.

Yep, it's either that or they just jump on to the next factoid with no acknowledgment that you debunked their supposed point. Do-Over Dylan is highlighted, as are all the major figures in the movement: Alex Jones, David Ray Griffin, Mike Ruppert, Box Boy Gage, etc. I am looking forward to Part V, entitled Paranoia and Apostasy.

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Dylan Avery Grows Up, a Bit

Slate is doing a series of articles on the 9/11 conspiracy theorists, including Dylan Avery, the seldom heard from creator of the conspiracy nutjob movie our blog is named in honor of.

What does Avery think of 9/11 conspiracy theories now? He thinks that while orchestrating the attacks was beyond the scope of the Bush administration, there was "considerable foreknowledge" within the government so that it should have been able to prevent them. Why it did not is his new focus. "Where I am now is, I've whittled it down to a very basic statement that I think a lot of people can agree on: There was a cover-up of some kind," Avery says. "The only question is what they were covering up, how far [up] it goes, how deep it runs, and how many asses would be on the line if the truth actually came out."

He says he still "support[s] the movement," but he also acknowledges getting "sucked in" deeper than he should have been, into a "hardcore mentality that it was almost too easy to get into back then, because the war had just started and everybody was just so pissed off."

"It was easy to distrust everything," he says, "because there was nothing you could trust."

In honor of this momentous occasion, I will turn the comments back on. Behave.

Monday, September 05, 2011

Shenon On the Missed Moussaoui Opportunity

We are certainly getting a deluge of terrific coverage in this week leading up to the tenth anniversary. Philip Shenon, whose book on the commission I recommend, covers the blunders the FBI made in not authorizing searches of Zacharias Moussaoui's computer and personal belongings until late in the day of September 11.

Special Agent Harry Samit of the FBI’s Minneapolis field office knew he
was looking into the eyes of a terrorist. It was early afternoon on
Friday, Aug. 17, 2001. Across from him sat Zacarias Moussaoui, a
33-year-old French-born student arrested the day before for overstaying
his visa. Moussaoui had paid more than $8,000 in cash that summer to sit
in a cockpit simulator in a flight school in the suburbs of Minneapolis
and learn—in a matter of days—the basics of how to fly a 747-400.
Samit, a former intelligence officer at the Navy’s celebrated Top Gun
flight school, felt sure the man across the desk from him was a Muslim
extremist who was part of a plot to hijack a commercial jetliner filled
with passengers. “The trick,” Samit wrote, in a soon-to-be-released
excerpt of a book he’s written about the case, “was getting Moussaoui to
admit this and reveal details and associates to allow us to stop the
plot.”

Simply Evil

The proper task of the "public intellectual" might be conceived as the responsibility to introduce complexity into the argument: the reminder that things are very infrequently as simple as they can be made to seem. But what I learned in a highly indelible manner from the events and arguments of September 2001 was this: Never, ever ignore the obvious either. To the government and most of the people of the United States, it seemed that the country on 9/11 had been attacked in a particularly odious way (air piracy used to maximize civilian casualties) by a particularly odious group (a secretive and homicidal gang: part multinational corporation, part crime family) that was sworn to a medieval cult of death, a racist hatred of Jews, a religious frenzy against Hindus, Christians, Shia Muslims, and "unbelievers," and the restoration of a long-vanished and despotic empire.

And on the Truthers:

It is not only in the Muslim world that it is commonplace to hear that the events of 9/11 were part of a Jewish or U.S. government plot. And it is not only on the demented fringe that such fantasies circulate in "the West." A book alleging that the Pentagon rocketed the Pentagon with a cruise missile—somehow managing to dispose of the craft and crew and passengers of the still-missing Flight 77, including my slight friend Barbara Olson—was a best-seller in France, while another book about another 9/11 conspiracy theory was published in the United States by the publishing arm of the Nation magazine. Westminster John Knox Press, a respected house long associated with American Presbyterianism, published Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11, which asserted that the events of that day were planned in order to furnish a pretext for intervention in the Middle East. More explicitly on the Left, my old publishing house Verso—offshoot of the New Left Review—published an anthology of Osama Bin Laden's sermonizing rants in which the editors compared the leader of al-Qaida explicitly, and in the context not unfavorably, to Che Guevara.

Sunday, September 04, 2011

How They Did It

This doesn’t faze the conspiracists. They’re immune to any reality check. Spinney “worked for the government.” They switched the dental records. The Boeing 757 was flown to Nebraska for a rendez-vous with President Bush, who shot the passengers, burned the bodies on the tarmac and gave Spinney’s friend’s teeth to Dick Cheney to drop through a hole in his trousers amid the debris in the Pentagon.

Friday, September 02, 2011

Money For Nothing

And then there are the lawyers. From the victim's compensation fund to the 9/11 health litigation, a select group of law firms have reaped close to a billion dollars in legal fees, often amid sharp criticism. In the WTC Captive Insurance fiasco the city used federal funds meant to help ailing workers to pay $165 million to three law firms fighting the case. Some of those lawyers billed at nearly $600 per hour. Meanwhile, at the time, only a handful of claims had been settled for something around $300,000.

And at the memorial:

The top 11 officials of the September 11 Memorial and Museum make at least $190,000 a year, with four of them—Joseph Daniels, Alice Greenwald, Joan Gerner, and Cathy Blaney—making well over $300,000, tax records show. That's $2.8 million in salaries just for 11 people. And when former general counsel Frank Aiello left in 2009, he got a $180,000 severance payment.

Not bad work if you can find it. And, oh, yes:

Even the so-called 9/11 Truth movement is raising funds. The president of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth took in about $344,000 in contributions in 2009—substantially more than the group raised in the previously three years. The group's director, Richard Gage, of Lafayette, California, made $75,450, in 2009.

The group claims to have evidence that explosive residue was found in the 9/11 dust, suggesting that "explosives brought down the towers." Some 1,500 architects and engineers have signed a petition calling for a new investigation.

Naturally, you can even buy 9/11 Truth merchandise: baseballs caps which say "9/11 was an inside job," and bumpers stickers which read "Bush knew."